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Tuesday, January 20, 2009

OH, university again, our second semester.

I had to get up at 6.30 and have a bath (it was cold, dread cold. But had to do it cz if not, I would smell like a rotten rat). Ok, guys, this is the typical me going to the university.

Gulp a plate of rice and curry down the throat and off I run to catch a bus. I was at Galaha Junction by 7.40, almost ten minutes late and to my dismay, the one who should be waiting for me was missing. Waited for another 5 minutes and texted her( you guys thought it was my BF right?? heh hee nope, it was my friend—a girl) that I would be going and meet you under the senate and stuff.

Ah, it was too late,walking to the faculty was impossible. So boarded a bus. Guys you know, that conductor took only 6 rupees from Galaha Junction to the Faculty of Arts. Good start, isn't it?

Then the “gal kanu yata sangame” aka our gossip corner. It was fun to check out how each and everybody was doing during the vacation. Well for the first time in my life, I got to know the important of the “pacha bankuawas” in the village boutique. It is a good place to pass your time when there is nothing to do and a good source of information about the things happening around. Not to mention, it is a bond developer too, well I mean not like Harcobond, it helps you to strengthen the friendship between the batch mates. In our case, we had no time table, any information on the additional courses that we have to follow this semester. so, gossiping was the only activity which kept us busy.

When, the mouths were tired of talking and the ears were tired of listening, some went to the gym and some just walked around to say hi to departments and the much loved stair cases in the library and the Sociology Department building. My bloody phone vibrates at this moment. A SMS, the one that my friend had sent in the morning to say not to wait for her in Galaha Junction. Mobitel, you really rock my world!! Rs6/= for an incoming text message and yet you have the guts to say you care always..bus conductors may be..

People who went to the gym were missing but all the dudes who went to say hi to the departments were returning in minutes as if they were bound by an elastic to the stone pillars. The Departments were all closed or either, not in function properly. We were lost, we had nothing to do, some had got hold of the course schedule for English and WCC but we didn't know whether we had the lectures that day or not.

We were hopeless, but as usual, we find hope in the hopelessness. The hope of having a fun!! no need to explain, you know the fun right? For the university students, imagine how you feel a two hour boring lecture is canceled without no cover up. For the school goers, imagine how you feel when this all hated and all insulted teacher doesn't come to the class due to a meeting with a principal.

All of a sudden, the corridor in front of the Deans' Office gets crowded as if SRK had visited the office. Then we know that the time table was out. We were used to that nice little time tables in the school but this one was horrible. Imagine all the courses offered to all the years in one big thing. If you really want to imagine how big it was multiply 9 by 5(number of hours in one day into number of days)and again multiply the result by number of lecture halls available in the faculty(more than twenty I suppose) so approximately, the time table has 900 cages!! you have to search for the relevant 15 cages to decipher out your proper time table from that “thing”. Oh, it was tiresome. Hope we had an on line system to check out the time tables( heard such a program is being developed. Hope it would come out before I pas out)

Another notice is then seen in the notice board of our Department of ********

“All the students who do **** come to meet Mrs********** with a copy of ******* by*****( Penguin edition, translated by*****)” but that was not what the schedule said. We were supposed to do something else in the first two weeks of the semester!! but what to do, they rule the world you know.

Off I ran to the library to get a book and as usual there was no book to be found. To be exact, no Penguin Edition. There was a Oxford University Press Edition available, but hell, it was not what the lecturer wanted. Hopeless again, went to the department to say that the book is not in the library. we met the lecturer only to hear her say that what ever, she is going to do the lecture( with or without books)..mm uni is cool right? This is just the beginning of the tragedy. Last time I screwed up the **** paper because I didn't read much. But this time, I took the course schedule in advance and read for the first play that we have to do. But alas, I was again yawning in the class for 2 hours with no clue on what is being said.

Hmm...This is what do you call the university life in Sri Lanka.

Only one girl in the class had a copy of the play (not the required version, she had burrowed the Oxford University Press Edition from the library) but that was only our problem, she finished a two third of it. That is why people say that university is all about self studying, do you get it guys and girls? That is it.

It was yesterday.

Today was no better. We were to have a lecture from 8-10. we were nicely seated in the lecture hall by 8 but not even a shadow of a lecturer was in the vicinity. So we had our own lectures on gossiping, emailing, texting and cheating in the exams etc etc.

the most interesting gossip I heard was that even the lecturer had been using the Oxford University Edition in yesterdays lecture. So why bother about penguins, hoping get a photocopy of the Oxford Edition, came out of the lecture hall and that was the second day of the second semester. Hope the third will be better!

9 comments:

I think i have seen your pic on my brothers phone.. Glad to go through your blog and it brings back old memories. Well the penguin edition ... :) things were really the same in my university also...once you name 'penguine edition' everybody understands the name of the department. In our case almost all the lecturers were from your department and they were quite strict about the edition ... one lecturer continued to make references to the page numbers and all the ppl who dont have the correct edition would have to suffer..

University time table ... oh stills are still the same.. all the people trying to copy the time table. Dont understand why they cant publish it on the web site or have several copies at several places... just take it as a part of your university life ... a monash or Dekin guy will not have this sort of stuff..:)

Nice post.Brought back the old memories of my own university life, well at the very same university as well...Those were the days... :DBtw, is it Rs 6 from Galaha to Arts now? DARN!When we started, it was like 7 from Campus to Kandy! How the things have changed!!!

And yeah, I get what you say about too busy schedules... I was at Fac of Sci but the things were the same, if not worse...But later, we sort of never really attend lectures. Well at least I didn't!Rather, would stay at the canteen whole day and play Poker or some other card game! LOL...

Man I had one hell of a time there...Thanks for the nice post and keep up the good work...Cheers!

Hey big brother,chaaaaa had told me about you. nice to meet you here!!

But I do not think you have guessed the department right. Do not comment about the Dep here..ask from chaaa. he will tell you the whole story!

And yes that time table is a part of the uni. It may seem a big headache for the people outside, but there is fun in all those crazy practices right? At least we can have a good laugh relating such local uni experiences to friends. but what does the Monash guys have? just education

ps: chaa has saved my photo in the phone? You know, you are sooooo good as a brother.( Now i have another point to tease him)

@sachinthaNo it was used to be, Rs10/= and after the decrement of it should be Rs9/=(got to know about it from friends later) anyway, I didnt know that. So gave Rs6/= and the conductor accepted it. He probaly was clueless as from where i got into the bus.(you know how crowded the Mahakanda buses are at that time right?)

You were lucky in that sense. we do not have the access to the Gemba or Wooose cz of the anti- ragger moment. We just have the Senate canteen and it is too busy to provide shelter for the people who cut lectures. So all we do is going to the gym, library or sitting under the stone pillars of the senate building to spend time.Anyway,it is also a nice place to be!!

@chamilaYes you are correct, we are getting the hang of it. Last semester was totally a mess.It was like another planet for us but this time, we feel that we are in the system!!

heheheee, yes mobitel is good in some aspects, specially GPRS. however, seems you have not understood what I said.

My friend had sent a SMS in the morning to say not to wait for her. But somehow or other I did not get it on time. So I waited for her sometime and since she was tooooooo late, I messaged her saying that Im going.

As it was late,I had to take a bus(10minutes if you take a bus and 20 minutes if you walk)which costed me Rs6/=. If I had received the SMS from my friend, I would not wait for her and I would have time to walk to the faculty. So finally, a SMS not delivered on time costed me 6/=

and @ allThanks for the compliments and the wishes for a good semester. i will keep writing..keep in touch

PS. You know what, the 3rd day was the same.

I had only one lecture today so,I want to the uni in the morning (and came back cz the lecturer had gone for a wedding!!)

Yep, this is about the UNIVERSITY OF PERADENIYA we are talking about . No lectures unless you count in English which started from the first day itself. But then again , you MUST count it in. It is tough and the department is the most organized in the Arts Faculty and as eveyone knows, is very meticulous in every aspect. Hope this semester is to be better than the last, which was a right disaster from start to the end . But I'm not too worried this time, of the tendency I have of completely losing my head due to overload of work - all thanks to the music files you've sent me Deeps. Ah,...Deeps,Deeps....what can I do without you? Have a nice term mon amie and hey, you guys who are reading this....4get your worries!!! DEEPS THE LONE VOICE OF TRUTH IS HERE TO LOOK AFTER US ALL!!!

@ Pavigirl, you gotta control ur tongue, otherwise, permanently blocked ...got it??wel no comment on your department cz im not in it. and secondly, i do not want to have a poor death by that giant!

whatever, yes, it is too much. we have to do accounting for management this time,complicated stuff than mugging up a book you know! i have not done accounting for the whole of my lime time..mmm already heading for a disaster..and hope your wishes would at least minimize the aftereffects of it..

hehehee thkns for comments buddy!

@narusumegoldenspam not alowed

@chamilaoh yeah i sort of forgot it when writing this. anyways, like to meet you in the fac.. fire me an email when you are coming..tc